thoughts on gass' the tunnel?
now that it's been a few months since it came back in print, im curious to see what everyone thinks.. personally i despised it, especially its humor. all of my least favorite tropes of postmodernism/20th c. literary fiction: penises, farts, I Hate My Pig Wife, a molasses plot, endless references to Smart Writers, Hitler.. all of the gimmicks featured in the first ~150 pages are quickly abandoned forever.. it felt very overworked; the 25 years spent working on the novel are perhaps too apparent. however, i've found myself thinking about it every now and then, particularly w/r/t The Fascism of the Heart, a solid diagnosis of how easy it is to fall into fascism. didn't love the novel but it's an interesting topic of discussion. hopefully this doesn't come across as a lazy inflammatory Actually, This Revered Book Sucks post